509 - The Future of Evangelical Christianity

The Future of Evangelical Christianity
By Donald G. Bloesch
Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1983. 202 pp. $12.95.

Donald Bloesch, Professor of Theology at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, has established himself as a leading spokesman for American evangelicalism through the publication of his Essentials of Evangelical Theology and other writings. In The Future of Evangelical Christianity he states that he seeks to defend the thesis that evangelicalism today exists as a "cohesive, growing movement and must therefore be taken seriously by the church at large, both Catholic and Protestant." He also seeks to warn his fellow evangelicals of trends that threaten to rupture the unity of the movement, and to build bridges between evangelical Protestantism and the Catholic churches.

In a challenge to evangelicals, Bloesch reminds conservative Protestants that the Reformation discarded not only the cultural and theological accretions that obscured the message of justification by grace through faith, but also "some of the treasures in the Catholic tradition which have yet to

510 - The Future of Evangelical Christianity

be taken seriously by Protestants." Evangelicals should be willing to acknowledge that the Counter-Reformation produced its own models of piety that are worthy of study and emulation.

Mainstream Protestants, on the other hand, should be wary of an uncritical experientialism, for when the church moves away from its confessional standards, "it is prone to demand absolute loyalty to its leader,ship, its program, or even to its polity." Theological amnesia can produce a "procedural fundamentalism" that enervates the church.

To those outside the evangelical movement, The Future of Evangelical Christianity provides a handy guide to its theological and sociological distinctives. To those inside the movement, the author provides helpful warnings and reminders, of weaknesses and blindspots in this tradition. The Future of Evangelical Christianity merits the attention of the pastor and teacher in today's church.

John Jefferson Davis
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Hamilton, Mass.